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DELIVERED 



ON TAKING LEAVE 



OLD CHURCH OF THE EAST SOCIETY 

IN SALEM, 

DECEMBER 28, 1845; 

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DEDICATION OF THEIR NEW CHURCH, 

JANUARY 1, 1846. 



BY JAMES FLINT, D. D. 

Pnstor of the Enst Cliiirck. 



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SALEM: 

PRINTED AT THE OBSERVER OFFICE. 

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DISCOURSES, 



DELIVERED 



ON TAKING LEAVE 



OLD CHURCH OF THE EAST SOCIETY 

IN SALEM; 

DECEMBER 28, 1845, 



BY JAMES FLINT, D. D. 

Pastor of the East Church. 



SALEM: 

PRINTED AT THE OBSERVER OFFICE. 

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Rev. Dr. Flint, 

Dear Sir, 

I take great pleasure in communicating to you the following 
copy of a Vote, passed unanimously at a recent meeting of the Proprietors of the East 
Meeting-House. 

Yours most respectfully, 
JAN'y 3d, 1846. W. B. PARKER. 



Voted, That the Society present their thanks to the Rev. Dr. Flint, for his eloquent 
Discourses delivered on the occasion of leaving the Old House of Worship; and that he 
be requested to furnish a copy for the press. 

W. B. PARKER, Pro. Clerk. 



At a meeting of the Building Committee of the New East Church, held on the 2d 
January, inst., it was 

Voted, That the thanks of the Committee be tendered to the Rev. Dr. Flint, for 
the excellent Discourse delivered by him at the Dedication of the New House of Worship 
for the East Society, and that he be requested to furnish a copy of the same for the press. 

W. B. PARKER, Sec>y. 



Rev. Dr. Flint, 

Dear Sir, 

I beg leave to communicate to you the above Vote of the 
Building Committee, and remain 

With great respect, yours truly, 

W. B. PARKER. 



Wm. B. Parker, Esq. 

Dear Sir, ' 

1 submit to the disposal of my kind parishioners and 
friends the Discourse.?, copies of which have been so obligingly requested for publication. 
And I beg them and you to be assurfed, that 

I am, with the greatest respect and regard, 

Theirs and your obliged friend and afi'ectiouate pastor, 
Salem, Jan. 6, 1846. - .' JAMES FLINT. 



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DISCOURSE I. 



Ecclesiastes, in, 3. 

A TIME TO BREAK DOWN AND A TIME TO BUILD UP. 

A GLANCE at the antiquated and unsightly aspect of de- 
cay and disfigurement, which the interior of this primitive 
house of worship presents, must, I think, satisfy every one, 
that the time has come, and none too soon, -finally to quit 
and break down these time-striken walls, as a time came to 
build them up, when by the gradual increase of the inhabi- 
tants of this ancient town, it became necessary to form from 
the first a second church and congregation, and to provide 
for themselves the house, in which we meet this morning 
for the last sabbath's worship, we shall ever ofter within 
its hallowed precincts. 

Our assembling here to-day seems like gathering around 
the corpse to attend the obsequies of an aged friend, vener- 
able for years, and for the piety and sanctity, the widely 
difl"ased instructions, blessings and consolations, which 
made those years fruitful of lasting good, we trust, to the 
souls of many, as they passed, and which hallow and en- 
dear their memory to all who yet survive to recall those 
years to remembrance. 

Before taking leave of this cherished object of religious 
aftection and veneration to successive generations, who 
have worshipped here, on whose form, once, no doubt, 
deemed fair and symmetrical, change and decay have long 
been doing their work, and which is soon to be removed from 
our sight, to be resolved into its original elements, — a brief 
retrospect of its origin and of some of the fortunes, changes 



4 

and events, connected with its history, Avhich may afford 
instruction or interest to the living, who have known some- 
thing of this history, and especially to those, who are to 
succeed us, who can know it only from our report, — seems 
to be demanded of us alike by long established usage and 
by the feelings, which the occasion cannot fail to awaken 
in the bosoms of us all, who for many or^ven a few years, 
from sabbath to sabbath, have met here to worship the 
God in whom we live, and to be taught by his word and 
spirit what we must do and be to inherit eternal life. 

The history of the First Church, of which the East 
Church is the sixth branch within the original colony, and 
the second within the present limits of this city, has been 
given to the public by the Rev. Mr. Upham, with his ac- 
customed fidelity of research and beautiful style of narra- 
tive, in a discourse delivered upon the completion of the 
second century from its institution in 1629. 

With the exception of a few Episcopalians, who wor- 
shipped by themselves, or in the Episcopal Church, that 
was early established in Marblehead, the inhabitants of the 
town worshipped together in one house from the commence- 
ment of the settlement in 162S, to 1716. Forty years 
previous an attempt was made to establish a new society, 
under the ministry of a Mr. Nicholet. He was a popular 
preacher, and seems to have awakened a strong interest in 
a majority of the town. But Mr. Higginson and a majority 
of tlie church members were opposed to him. His friends 
even went so far as to raise the frame of a meeting-house, 
and to roof it. Mr. Higginson and the church prevented 
their going farther. Afterwards his friends petitioned the 
government to establish them as a society, under the min- 
istry of Mr. Nicholet. They were advised to wait till they 
could act harmoniously, which was a virtual denial of 
their petition. Soon after Mr. Nicholet took leave of the 
town and peace was restored. In the autumn of the year, 
named above, 1716, it was proposed by a number of the 
inhabitants to build a meeting-house in the Eastern end of 
the town. This movement does not appear to have origi- 
nated from any disagreement, or dissatisfaction either v/ith 



the minister or the residents up in town. It grew out of 
the natural increase of the people. 

The committee of the first parish had it in contemplation 
to " take off the top of their hoiise^' — so says an old docu- 
ment that has been preserved, entitled " The Reasons for 
building a meeting-house," — and to repair and enlarge it 
by adding another story, I presume, which was to furnish 
space for a second tier of galleries, such as most of us 
remember to have seen in the meeting-house, which gave 
place, some years since, to that in which the first church 
and society now worship. "The house," says the docu- 
ment, "was not big enough to hold the people, and, for 
want of room, many of the Eastern end of the town, and 
many others on other accounts, stayed away from public 
worship; and a great many, under pretence of being of the 
church of England, went to Marblehead in boats, [so] that 
our harbor appeared more like a day of frolicking than any 
thing else. The people of the Eastern end of the town, 
with some gentlemen of the other part of the town, met 
together to consider of building a meeting-house ; and ac- 
cordingly chose a committee to get a suitable place for the 
setting of a meeting-house, which they accordingly had 
provided. But some few of the people, not being pleased 
with the place, put a stop to the proceeding any farther for 
some time, resolving not to proceed v/ithout it could be in 
peace." This praiseworthy characteristic appears to have 
distinguished the members of this Society, from its first 
formation, through its entire history, to the present time. 

"Sometime after, they agreed on a place," — continues 
the document,— " and accordingly chose a committee for 
carrying on said meeting-house, which was raised the 27ih 
of August, 1717." The ground for the house, was purchased 
of Christopher Babbage and others, a plat of 19 poles at the 
corner of Grafton's lane, as what is now the corner of 
Essex and Hardy streets, was then called. The house was 
in dimensions originally 40 by 60 feet, and what has been 
called tunnel-shaped, the belfry and spire ascending from 
the centre of the roof The only one now standing, I believe, 
in Massachusetts, of like form, is in Hinshani. more than 



«riie hundred and sixty-five years old. " By desire/" says the 
•document, " of some gentlemen of the first parish, we put 
ourselves to more charge than we need to have done, on 
purpose to accommodate those of that parish." How this 
unnecessary charge for this purpose was incurred does not 
appear. But from several circumstances, apparent in the 
account of the first estabishment of the new church and 
society, it would seem that a majority of the first church 
was desirous to keep the congregation undivided, and that 
they should still worship in one house. Hence the propo- 
sition of the committee to enlarge the old house. The 
committee chosen by the seceeders from the old society, as 
directed, proceeded with the building of their house, which 
<letermincd the proprietors of the old house instead of re- 
pairing, to take it down and build a new one. 

" The meeting-house in the East part of the town," con- 
tinues the document, " was so much finished that it was 
preached in the next sabbath after the meeting-house in the 
upper part of the town was pulled down." This was the 
first sabbath in May, 1718. " The house ever since," says 
my authority, " has been and I believe will be a benefit to 
the town in general." Some fourteen names of residents 
in other parts of the town are recorded among the subscri- 
bers to the building of this meeting-house. They were 
among the most respectable and wealthy citizens of the 
town, — the sums of whose subscriptions, appended to their 
names, are an evidence of their liberality. Others, whose 
names do not appear, promised to give considerable sums, 
if the building proceeded. 

" After the house was built," says my authority, " not- 
withstanding we have petitioned the first parish once and 
again, that we might have a suitable line set us, whereby 
we might be enabled to support our minister without being 
too great a burden upon us, that we might live in peace 
with each other, — after some length of time, the first parish 
met and voted us such a line as we could not take up with ; 
in which line to £120 rate to Mr. Noyce, we paid about 
£30 of it. They presently went and rated all above the 
line set us, which prevented several that would [otherwise] 



liav,e joined us. We petitioned the Governor and Conncif 
in the fall of 171S. And it was represented as if we had 
never petitioned the first parish, and so [our petition] was 
dismissed, as it was said that we had not made proper ap- 
jihcation. And, determined that they should give us satis- 
faction, we accordingly petitioned said parish again, and 
they have added five poor families and say we shall have 
no more." 

The whole difiiculty between the first parish and the 
members of the new society, appears to have arisen from 
the reluctance of the former to establish between the pax- 
ishes such a division line, as the latter desired in order to 
bring a reasonable proportion of the tax-payers within their 
limits. I have not been able to ascertain where the line, 
finally fixed upon, ran. 

After the house was consecrated and opened for worship 
on the first sabbath in May, 1718, as before stated, on 
which occasion Mr. Wigglesworth of Ipswich preached, the 
proprietors continued to worship in it without any formal 
separation from the first church. Having in the course of 
the ensuing season, by making certain concessions, settled 
their difiiculty with the first church, in the autumn of that 
year thirty-six persons, who were members of the first 
church, petitioned to be set oft' to the East Society, and to 
be constituted a distinct church under the ministry of the 
candidate they had invited to settle with them. Of the 
twenty-six difierent names of these petitioners, I find but 
five of the same name belonging to our present Society. 
Several of the names are not to be found in our city direc- 
tory. Their petition, addressed to the Rev. Samuel Fisk, 
Pastor of the first church in Salem, and to the church, was 
read by the pastor, Nov. 23, 1718, immediately after the 
conclusion of the evening service. It was as follows : — 
" Hon'd, Rev. & Beloved — Whereas all of us, the subscri- 
bers, have been for some time under covenant obligations 
to this church, and whereas now Divine Providence opens 
a way for our embodying into a church state ourselves un- 
der the pastoral care of Mr. Robert Staunton, whom we 
design to have or4ained for that purpose, as soon as con- 



8 

venlentiy may be. And although some few of us failed in 
our duty in our former proceedings, we pray it may be 
overlooked and passed by ; and we humbly and heartily 
request you, that you would be pleased [so] to release us 
from our covenant obligations, as that we, with our chil- 
dren, may have your free consent to imbody into a church 
by ourselves, and may be by you recommended to the pas- 
toral care of our intended pastor, Mr. Staunton. And we 
entreat we may have the benefit of the sacrament with you 
until our church is settled ; and as there shall be occasion 
that you will assist and help us, especially by your prayers 
to the God of all grace, that in so great an affair we may 
be directed and assisted to proceed in all things according 
to the will of God ; unto whom be glory in the churches by 
Jesus Christ throughout all ages. Amen." 

A church meeting was appointed to be held the ensuing 
week for maturely considering the request of the brethren 
and sisters, at which meeting, after due deliberation, the 
following answer and vote were accorded to the petition- 
ers: — "Whereas, our neighbors, who dwell in the Eastern 
part of this town, have erected a house for the public wor- 
ship of God, and the first parish hath granted them a 
separate district for the support of the ministry among them ; 
and whereas, they have hereupon called a learned, orthodox 
and pious minister to dispense the gospel to them, and in 
order to settlement and ordination among them ; — although 
we cannot but bear due testimony against the irregular 
proceedings of some of the said brethren, in the management 
of that affair of building a house for a separate assembly, 
contrary to the usage and proceedings of other brethren, 
formerly belonging to this church, in the gathering of a 
church, and contrary to good order ; yet, for the sake of 
peace, considering that those of our said brethren, who 
request a dismission, and who have been faulty, have con- 
fessed their fault, and desired that it might be overlooked ;" 
[which fault seems to have been that they united with their 
neighbors in building the new house without asking leave 
of their brethren of the first church, which they regarded 
as treason against the absolute authority of churches in 



those days, and of course contrary to good order;] — "and 
we being ready," they continue, " to encourage the work 
of the gospel among us in this town, do dismiss our said 
brethren and sisters with their children, who dwell to the 
Eastward of said line, from this church, (so as that they 
attend communion and church order with us, till their pas- 
tor is ordained,) and recommend them to the care of the 
Rev. Robert Staunton, whom they intend to have ordained 
their Pastor." 

Having now obtained a division line and become a dis- 
tinct parish and regularly constituted church, they appointed 
a day for the ordination of their first Pastor, Robert Staun- 
ton, whose ordination took place on the 8th of April, 1719. 
The sermon upon the occasion was preached by Cotton 
Mather, of the old North Church in Boston, now under the 
pastoral care of the Rev. Chandler Robbins. — Of the place 
or the date of the birth of this first Pastor of the East 
Church, no record has come down to us. He graduated at 
Havard College in 1712. He died the 3d of May, 1727, 
leaving a widow and children, — the duration of his ministry 
being a little more than eight years. His death is noticed 
in the Annals of Salem, as " a loss to his Society and the 
community at large." Of his endowments, his attainments, 
his character as a minister or a man, nothing has been 
recorded, and he has left no production, that has reached 
us, to inform us what was the character of his mind. We 
infer that his ministry was peacetul and happy, from the 
fact, that nothing to the contrary has been recorded, and 
that his early death was regretted alike by his people and 
the community at large. He doubtless was honored, be- 
loved and mourned by his cotemporaries that knew him, 
but over him and most of them oblivion has long since 
spread a veil, that cannot now be removed. 

" He lived, — he died ; behold the fsum, 
"The abstract of the historian's page." 

Of how many, who have filled a large space in their 

day, were applauded while living, and were deplored and 

eulogized when they died, after a few years have come 

and gone, nothing more is known or can be affirmed than 

2 



10 

this, — " They lived,— they died ;" and that we " lived and 
died" is all that will be known or remembered of us, if 
even so much of most of us, after a few generations shall 
have succeded us. 

In February of the next year, the church chose William 
Jennison, a native of Watertown, for their minister. He 
was ordained the 2d of May following. The sermon upon 
the occasion was preached by the Rev. Peter Clarke of the 
second church, now first church in Danvers, from Romans, 
i^ 9._In September 13, 1736, Mr Jennison asked and received 
a dismission from his pastoral charge of the East church 
and society. He graduated at Harvard College, 1724, and 
died at Watertown, April 1, 1750, leaving three children 
and a widow, Abigail, daughter of James Lindall of this 
town. A general disaffection of the society towards him, 
appears to have existed for some time previous to his dis- 
mission ; from what cause or causes is not known. In his 
letter of acquiescence in a dismission, addressed to the 
church and society, he says: "Honored and Beloved — I 
esteem myself very unhappy that I have fallen under your 
displeasure. Glad would I be, if it lay in my power to 
fulfil the ministry I have received among you, [so] as to 
approve myself to God and to the consciences of all of us ; 
but when I consider the great and long uneasiness and 
dissatisfaction you have labored under, — (for which I am 
heartily sorry) — I despair of being reinstated in your love 
and affection, so as to answer the great ends of the sacred 
ojffice among you. I am, therefore, willing to accept a dis- 
mission from the sacred office among you, — which I write 
with fear and trembling, not knowing at present what will 
become of me and mine; but earnestly trusting to your 
favor and kindness towards us under the difficulties of my 
situation, and which you have encouraged me to hope for, 
upon my being freely and willingly dismissed. — I heartily 
wish the best of blessings to your dear church and flock. 
My eye and heart is lifted up to the Lord Jesus, the great 
shepherd and bishop of souls, that he would feed and lead 
you ; and that you may again be settled in the peaceable 
and profitable enjoymenlt of the word and ordinances of 



11 

God. — Thus committing you to God and the word of his 
grace, which is able to build you up again, and to give you 
an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in 
Christ Jesus, — I remain your sorrowful friend, but very 
humble servant, Wm. Jennison." — From a proposition, 
made to one of the committee, that the parish should supply 
the pulpit for a certain term of time and continue his salary, 
it would seem that he was disabled by some bodily in- 
firmity from discharging his ministerial duties. Whatever 
may have been the reason of his dismission, he received it 
submissively and sorrowfully, as he tells them, and retired 
to Watertown, where he died, having survived his dismis- 
sion more than thirteen years. 

The May following the dismission of Mr Jennison, 173T, 
James Diman was ordained Pastor of the East Church and 
Society. The sermon upon the occasion, was preached by 
Rev. Edward Holyoke, (afterwards President of Harvard 
College,) from Heb., xiii, 17. He appears to have had a 
peaceful, as well as protracted ministry, till, in his advanced 
age, a general wish prevailed in the Society, that he should 
be relieved from the principal labors of the ministry by the 
settlement of a colleague. During his ministry the house 
was enlarged, and the old Bay Hymn book exchanged for 
Watts's Hymns and version of the Psalms. In March 20, 
1783, Mr. Diman addressed a communication to the parish, 
concurring with their wishes to invite a colleague. Soon, 
after, in the same month, a committee was appointed to 
obtain an act of incorporation of the proprietors of the house, 
in order to the settlement of a colleague. In July 3d, an 
act was passed by the General Court, empowering the pro- 
prietors to raise money by a tax on the pews and seats to 
support a colleague, and providing for a dissolution of the 
territorial parish after the death of Mr. Diman. 

July 23, the church invited William Bentley, — (who had 
preached to them since the first sabbath in May,) — to become 
colleague pastor with Mr. Diman. August 8th, Mr. Bent- 
ley accepted the invitation, and was ordained the 24th of 
September. The sermon upon the occasion was preached 
by the Rev. Dr. Lathrop, of the old North church, Boston. 



12 

It appears from a paper, that has been preserved, ad- 
dressed by members of the Society to Mr. Diman, that 
although he had given his approbation of the candidate, as 
it is expressed, "in the most solermi manner," yet, when 
he came to give the charge, he gave great oifence to the 
Society generally, by disclaiming all relationship to the 
church, the society, and to Mr. Bentley, as a colleague, — (this 
must have been in private, as no such disclaimer appears 
in the charge, v/hich is published with the sermon) — that 
many individuals felt themselves personally offended, and 
that the Society generally, viewed themselves, as very 
ill-treated by the illiberal reports, which were alleged to 
have been spread by his family. It appears from this 
paper, that no committee had been willing to serve, for 
several years, to assess the taxes for the payment of his 
salary; that in years previous the parish had annually made 
additions to his salary to the amount of more than fifty 
per cent, in advance of the sum, originally stipulated. In 
the end all arrears were paid either to him or his heirs. 
But there seems to have been little or no cordiality of re- 
gard, or intercourse between the parish and senior pastor, 
or between him and his colleague, during the latter years 
of Mr. Diman's ministry. He retained his calvinistic or- 
thodoxy, unsoftened and unchanged, to the last. The 
Society had been long advancing towards more liberal and 
rational views of religion. The old puritan strictness of 
discipline, and the exercise of despotic authority, by churches 
and ministers, irrespective of the rights of the congregation, 
had, for a long time, ceased to be respected in the East 
Society ; — and their new pastor was in full consent and 
sympathy with the most liberal of his congregation. Great 
harmony, a new interest and full attendance upon the pub- 
lic ministrations of their new pastor, followed immediately 
upon his induction into his office. Several influential and 
wealthy individuals, I have been told, from other parts of 
the town, with their families, joined the East Society. 

In a little more than five years after the ordination of his 
colleague, on the Sth of October, 1788, Mr. Diman de- 
ceased in the 81st year of his age and in the 52d year of 



13 

his pastoral connection with the East Church in Salem. 
The Salem Mercury of Oct. 14th, thus notices his death : 
" Died Oct. 8th, in the 81st year of his age, Rev. 
James Diman, senior pastor of the East Society in this 
town, and yesterday afternoon his remains were respect- 
fully entombed. 

'Go, faithful steward, and receive 

The favor of the Lord ; 
A crown of glory he will give, 

Thy labor's great reward. 
The glorious sentence thou shalt hear, 

Pronounced by truth divine, 
Come, blessed soul, inherit here, — 

Eternal joys are thine.'" 

Mr. Diman was a native of Long Island, New York, and 
was born Nov. 29, 1707. He graduated at Harvard College 
1730, and was Librarian of the college from 1735 to the 
time of his ordination. 

I have found no printed production of Mr. Diman except 
the charge at the ordination of his colleague. Some of the 
older members of the Society have described him to me, as 
of grave aspect, invested with the imposing dignity, rather 
stern, and awe-inspiring, peculiar to the ministers of the 
age of huge wigs, which were a symbol of the clerical 
authority and the orthodox theology of the day, which all 
belonged to the head and that the outside, and Avhich, like 
the wig, was manufactured for them, — which they received 
and dispensed from the Institutes of Calvin and the com- 
mentaries of the Westminster assembly of divines. 

His young colleague and successor dispensed at once 
with the Avig and the creed, of which it had been so long 
the symbol. He gave a reason for what he believed, and 
he believed nothing that was contrary to his reason, or 
that was at variance with the moral sense, or the natural 
perception of the right, the true, the good, the divinely 
benevolent and beautiful, with which his Creator had en- 
dowed him. — With the exception of a single interview with 
him, a few months before his death, which left upon my 
memory a very pleasing impression of his countenance and 



14 

manner, 1 knew him only from reputation. From all that 
I have learned of him, I have conceived of him, as possesed 
of a vigorous and brilliant intellect, — rapid and exuberant 
in thought, — of great ease and fluency of speech, — untram- 
melled by the autliority of names or systems in philosophy 
or theology, — interpreting the universe and the bible fear- 
lessly by the light^which enlighteneth every 7nan that cometh 
into the loorld^ — the light of the soul, which is greater than 
the outward universe, or the mere letter of the bible. 

With a mind firmly anchored and held immoveably fast 
to the great central truths of one infinite God and that this 
God is love, — the universal and loving Father of all human 
spirits, — under v/hose government all evil, as we deem 
evil, is permitted to exist for ultimate good — he gave free 
and full scope to speculation, while he held himself and all 
moral, responsible agents bound by the eternal and im- 
mutable law of duty to love and do good to his fellow 
men and to abstain from all wrong or injury to any. 
With a heart replete with warm and generous affections, 
his sympathies went out tenderly and bountifully towards 
the poor, the suffering, the wronged, and the oppressed. 
He was for extending to all a perfect equality of privileges 
and the largest freedom consistent with the maintenance of 
law and order. The rights of conscience and private judg- 
ment in matters of religious faith and worship he held to be 
sacred and inalienable. Individual freedom and individual 
responsibility he regarded as reciprocal and inseparable. 
As he felt at liberty to believe only what to him appeared to 
be truth, and to reject what he believed to be error, he ac- 
corded the same liberty to all others. Hence the old 
written creed and covenant, which this church had early 
adopted, were laid aside under his ministry ; and simply 
the desire to commemorate the death of the Saviour, was 
all that was required for becoming a member of the 
church," — the communicants in this act being responsible 
only to God and the head of the church, and not to the 
minister or one another. 

You heard a brother minister, whose early years were 
passed under the ministry of Dr. Bentley, in taking leave not 



15 

long since of this church, " thank God that his providence- 
ordained that here his spirit should be trained, and that it 
was so trained, that he is now able to rejoice in the liberty 
wherewith Christ has made us free.'' I too may thank 
God that my immediate predecessor, having sufiered the 
dogmas of a false and gloomy theology to die out, cleared 
the ground here of the polemic thorns and stumbling stones 
of a traditionary and irrational faith, and left it a prepared 
field for receiving the good seed of the word, — the simple 
and intelligible truths of the pure gospel, which are able to 
save the souls of all, who receive them into good and 
honest hearts, and who show their faith by their v/orks, by 
pureness of living, by beneficence and charity, and follow- 
ing after the things that make for peace, having no other 
strife than by a good example to provoke one another to 
love and good works. 

While he thus preached love and good works, as the 
essence and end of religion, he was himself a winning 
example of what he preached to his flock. Having no fami- 
ly ties to divide his cares and responsibilities with his people 
he made them his family. And the affection he manifested 
for them, he had the happiness to know was cordially 
reciprocated by them. His reputation for learning stood 
high even among those who had little sympathy with his 
religious tenets ; and had he, instead of being ambitious of 
traversing the whole vast domain of letters and science, 
been contented to cultivate some single department or 
province of this domain, he might have shone among 
the most conspicuous lights of his age. He has left 
few printed productions to vouch for the varied and 
rich acquisitions he had made in the boundless cycle of 
human knowledge, arts and philosophy. But he has left 
what is far better, — a memorial in the affections of his 
people — of those who are with him in the unseen world, 
and of those who yet survive, — a memorial that can never 
die. 

William Bentley was born in Boston June 22, 1759, 
graduated at Harvard College, 1777, and for three years 
was Tutor there. He expired suddenly, of angina pectoris, 



16 

on the evening of the 29th of December, 1819. He was 
buried from the church, and his remains deposited in the 
tomb of Robert Stone, Esq. The funeral discourse was 
preached by Professor Edward Everett, then of Harvard 
University. 

The present Pastor of this Church was installed Sept. 
19, 1821. The Sermon on the occasion was preached by 
the Rev. Henry Colman. 

In the afternoon, a few more notices of the house and 
of the doings of the Society, with the reflections, sug- 
gested by our final leave-taking of these time-honored 
and time-stricken walls, will form the subject of the last 
discourse, to which I shall ask your attention within these 
hallowed precints, in which you have so long and so often 
listened with the kindest indulgence and candor to the 
voice, that will never more be heard again from this pulpit 
in exhortation or in prayer. 



DISCOURSE II. 



I Epislle of John, ii, clause of the I8lh verse. 
IT IS THE LAST TIME. 

Who has not experienced something of the solemnity, 
the mingled sadness and regret, with which we have seen 
and conversed with a friend, or visited a place, a spectacle 
or any object of interest, with which pleasant, nay, even 
painful associations are connected, — for the last tim^ 7 If 
it is a last interview with a friend, we feel the solemnity of 
the great and awful change we must both of lis undergo, 
before we shall meet again in a condition and state, of 
which we can know nothing with certainty in the present 
life. If it is a spot, or dwelling place, in Avhich our child- 
hood and youth were passed, or which we have often 
frequented to reciprocate affectionate greetings, or to recall 
to mind early joys and sorrows, how affecting the thought 
that we have seen it for the last time 7 If it is a home, in 
which we have long dwelt and shared with those we love 
the bounties and blessings, as well as the chastenings and 
painful discipline of life, what a world of touching, of 
grateful and joyous, of bitter and mournful remembrances 
swell the heart and memory to fulness, which can find 
relief only by the overflow of tears and irrepressible grief, 
that we have come forth from that dwelling and closed its 
doors after us for the last time 7 

More or less of these feelings is awakened in all our 
bosoms, upon our entering this ancient house of worship 
this afternoon, for the last time. If it is a friend, or a place, 
or a home, or a rendezvous even of amusement, a hall of 
scientific or literary entertainment, with which we have 
3 



18 

been long familiar, of which we are to take leave, and on 
which we are to look for the last time, we naturally enough 
retrace in our minds, if we do it not formally in words, 
the history of the past events, circumstances and changes 
of interest, connected with the friend, the home, the place, 
which we are to see, or where we are to meet no more. 

Of this ancient house, of which v^'-e are now about to 
take leave forever, we, in the morning's discourse, retraced 
the history in part, — that of its origin somewhat at large, 
and also of the several Pastors and their ministries, down 
to the installation of the present incumbent. It was then 
stated, that a few more notices of the house and of the do- 
ings of the Society, with the reflections suggested by our 
leave-taking of its time-honored and time-stricken walls, 
would form the subject of this afternoon's discourse. 

Some changes in the outward form and improvements 
in the interior arrangements and provision for the comfort 
of the congregation, while they were assembled here for 
worship, have been effected from time to time, as the con- 
dition and tastes of the Society have advanced with their 
advancing means and culture. 

In 1761, the meeting-house was new sashed and glazed 
at an expense of £46 7 9^. In 1765, in April, the Parish 
agreed with Phillip English to perform the duties of Sex- 
ton for 48 shillings a year. The same year, Capt. George 
Crowninshield paid twenty bushels of Indian corn at 3s a 
bushel, as a fine for not serving as collector; and the same 
was distributed among the poor of the Parish. In 1766, 
the meeting-house was clapboarded. In 1769, August 8, 
the Parish voted to provide a seat in the gallery for the 
singers, and a seat for the women negroes. By this re- 
moval of the singers to the gallery, six new pews were 
furnished in the space, which they had occupied, and were 
numbered 37, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43. In 1770, there not being 
room to accommodate the congregation, the Parish voted 
to enlarge the meeting-house and to have a new steeple 
built at the western end, and a porch at the eastern end ; 
and to purchase of the Rev. James Diman, as much land 
as may be wanted for the proposed alteration. Between 



19 

live and six poles of laud was purchased of the Pastor, as 
voted. During the following year, 1771, the proposed al- 
teration was effected, and the house took the form and 
dimensions, which have remained unchanged to the present 
time. It was divided in the centre, and the space of four- 
teen feet added to its width, is marked by the two seams, 
which may be seen in the plastering over head. The next 
year, 1772, the Parish voted to purchase a new bell, and 
to dispose of the old one. The old bell weighed 217 1-2 
lbs., and was sold to Harvard College, and was removed 
there. A new bell for the house, costing £60, in the course 
of the year, was brought from England in the brig Thames, 
Capt. Higginson, master. In the same vessel was brought 
also, a new bell for the Rev. Mr. Barnard's meeting-house. 
In 1773, the Parish voted to accept of a clock, procured 
by subscription. It was manufactured by Samuel Lus- 
comb, of Salem. In 1774, the Parish appointed a commit- 
tee to apply to the town to take charge of the clock and 
defray the charges of keeping it in order. 

During an interval, between 1775 and 1778, on account 
of dissatisfaction in the Parish, no person was found wil- 
ling to serve as a Parish officer, and no provision was 
made for raising the minister's salary. But at the com- 
mencement of the year last named, the Parish voted the 
payment of the minister's salary for the two previous years. 
Early in the same year, the Parish appointed John Em- 
merton to take care of the boys, and directed him to take 
disorderly boys, " without fear or favor, and carry them 
down and set them on the pulpit stairs, as we suppose" 
(they say) " that will effectually remedy those disorders; 
for which service we agree to give you 20s a year, or more 
if you think that is not sufficient." 

In the spring of 1779, a proposition to hire an assistant 
to Mr. Diman was negatived. In the spring of the follow- 
ing year, Mr. Diman made a communication to the Parish, 
complaining of the smallness of his salary by reason of 
the depreciation of the currency, and praying that a stand- 
ard be fixed upon, similar to the one adopted by the first 
church. With others, who depended upon a fixed salary 



20 

for their support, clergymen were great sufferers, during 
the revokUionary war, from the depreciation and fluctuat- 
ing value of the currency. I was once told by a respecta- 
ble clergyman of that period, that his entire salary for 
a year barely enabled him to purchase a cow. The 
proposition of Mr. Diman not being acceded to, he made a 
demand for £96, which the Parish refused to pay, and 
ordered the committee to consult Mr. Whetmore, then a 
practising lawyer here. I find no record of Mr. Whet- 
more's opinion in the case. The disagreement between 
the Parish and Pastor continued, till Mr. Diman's reluctant 
consent to the settlement of a colleague, which took place 
in 1783, as stated in the morning. 

Two years after, in October, 1785, the disaffection con- 
tinued so strong, that at a meeting of the proprietors of the 
meeting-house, it was proposed to Mr. Diman, that "if he 
will desist from officiating within these walls, and giA'^e up 
the whole to Mr. Bentley, and will endeavor to live in 
peace and harmony, we on our part will endeavor to col- 
lect the said sum of £60, voted him, and pay it in as soon 
as may be. We also promise not to take advantage of his 
relino[uishing or giving up any thing, he may think to be 
his right." — To this vote Mr. Diman made the following 
very proper reply : — " To the Proprietors of the East Meet- 
ing-House in Salem. I received your message by your 
committee, desiring me to desist from officiating^ or, in 
other words, to divest myself of my ministerial character 
and return to a private life. Look over my ordination ser- 
mon, brethren, and the charge annexed thereto ; and see 
the solemn obligation I laid myself under, at my introduc- 
tion into the work of the ministry among you. The oath 
of God is upon me to watch for souls, as one that is to give 
account. It is my indispensable duty, in conjunction with 
my Rev. Colleague, to use my utmost endeavors to promote 
true religion amongst this people. It is but little indeed I 
can do now in my advanced age ; but I must do what I 
can. That minister, who expects to receive the promised 
crown of life, must be faithful unto death. God grant that 
you and I may be enabled, so to discharge our duty in 



21 

every respect, that when we are called to appear before his 
awful tribunal, we may give up our accounts with joy and 
not with grief. This is and shall be the frequent, fervent 
prayer of your affectionate pastor, James Diman." — Mr. 
Diman after this reply continued to officiate occasionally 
till his decease. 

In 1806, a patent clock was purchased by subscription — 
the one before us — costing $80. The same year it was 
proposed to build a new meeting-house, and an attempt 
was made to get up a subscription for it. A committee of 
the Society, who were appointed to appraise the value of 
the old house, reported, as their opinion, that the land, 
meeting-house, bell, &c. are worth f 3300. The proposition 
was postponed; and it was voted in 1809, instead of build- 
ing a new to repair the old house. The expense of the 
repairs was $1309 66. The present bell, which was pro- 
cured in 1801, from the foundery of Col. Paul Revere, 
weighs 920 lbs. The old bell, which was taken in part 
payment, weighed 583 lbs. In 1826, the house was re- 
paired and painted ; and was again repaired for the last 
time in 1830. In 1833, and again in 1838, a proposition to 
build a new house failed. This is the only house in this 
vicinity, and, I believe, in the State, which has retained 
the ancient fashion of square pews. 

Dr. Watts's Hymns and versions of the Psalms had been 
for a long time used by the Society, till a Collection was 
made by Dr. Bentley, and introduced in November, 1788, 
and continued in use till the Collection now in use, com- 
piled by the present pastor, was introduced the first sab- 
bath in February, 1843. Stoves for warming the house 
were first used in the winter of 1821 and 2, the first winter 
after the installation of the present pastor. The singing, 
after many fluctuations, came to a dead silence in 1830, 
which led to the procuring of a,n organ by subscription, to 
which the Hon. Benjamin W. Crowninshield, then a mem- 
ber of the Society, was the largest contributor ; and that 
his interest in the prosperity of the Society did not cease 
with his removal from our city, has been evinced by his 
subscription of $500, towards the building of our new 



22 

house of worship. The organ was opened and first used 
for public worship, Feb. 13, 1831. 

The records of the church from its first institution down 
to the commencement of Dr. Bentley's ministry, after in- 
quiring of all, into whose hands it was thought they were 
most likely to fall, if in existence, have hitherto evaded all 
research. The marriages, baptisms and deaths in the 
Society are recorded in a fair hand from the date of Dr. 
Bentley's ordination to the close of his ministry ; and a re- 
cord of the marriages and baptisms has been kept by his 
immediate successor ; but not of the deaths, as the duty of 
recording the deaths has devolved upon the clerk of the city 
government. Additions to the church of male members 
have been few and far between, during the ministries of all 
the Pastors. There were eleven male members dismissed 
from the first church, who were the first members of the 
East, or Second Church in Salem. Under the ministry of 
Mr. Staunton only three males are recorded as having been 
added to the church ; under the ministry of Mr. Jennison, 
nine ; under that of Mr. Diman, of fifty years, twenty nine. 
During the ministry of Dr. Bentley and that of the present 
Pastor, the male members have varied from seven to nine 
or ten in number. Eight only voted in 1783 at the ordina- 
tion of Dr. Bentley. The entire church, including males 
and females, has varied from fifty to seventy. There are 
now about sixty in all, — several of them too aged to attend 
public worship. Observance of the christian ordinances 
seems never to have been regarded by the Society, as the 
best, or an essential test or index of the christian life and 
character. That so few males have been communicants 
has been attributed perhaps, with good reason, to the fact 
that most of the men have followed the seas, and from 
being so much of their time abroad have had but little oppor- 
tunty of uniting with their brethren in the commemorative 
rite of the supper. Whatever the cause may have been, 
I have painfully felt the smallness of the number of my 
brethren, who have hitherto joined with me in this pecu- 
liarly christian rite. 



23 

It is due to the Society that I notice one characteristic, 
by which it has been uniformly and eminently distin- 
guished from the settlement of Dr. Bentley to the present 
time, — a characteristic truly christian, i. e. charity, the 
liberal bestowment of their bounty upon their indigent 
brethren and sisters. Besides many liberal bequests and 
numberless private benefactions to the needy and suffering, 
there has been collected by contributions upon the annual 
Thanksgivings and Fasts, and distributed among the indi- 
gent members of the Society, |9,114 49; — $5,723 65 pre- 
vious to the installation of the present Pastor ; — $3,290 84 
from that time to the last annual Thanksgiving; — making 
an average of something more than $155 a year. It is 
worthy of notice here that the Society has never suffered 
under the paralyzing incubus of a parish debt. I might 
go far back and find recorded many generous subscriptions 
from time to time, for repairing and furnishing the house, 
and for other objects connected with the respectable support 
of the public worship and observance of the christian or- 
dinances ; and from the origin of the Society, tracing those 
subscriptions and contributions down to the present time, 
I find recorded upon the church plate, and as donors of 
other bequests and benefactions to the Society, the names 
of Lendall, Brown, Derby, White, Fisk, Crowninshield, 
Hodges, Silsbee, and others. Of the liberality of the de- 
parted, who have borne these names, I need not speak ; 
their record and their reward is with them in heaven. Of 
the liberality of the living to their Pastor I may not speak 
while they are present, though my deep and abiding sense 
of their generous kindness would prompt me to say much. 
Yet of one deceased friend, true and uniform to the last, I 
may speak, — the late William Silsbee, whose interest in 
the welfare of the Society, and whose unchanging kindness 
and encouragement to his sometimes desponding Pastor, 
ceased only with his life, — almost whose last words I 
remember, when, in 1833, it was proposed to build a new 
house, and a certain spot was named for its site, looking 
towards it from his chamber, which he never left alive, he 
said,—" I hope it may be obtained and the house built." 



24 

As the dying wish, — so we may regard it, — of this steady 
friend and supporter of God's worship here, that a new 
house might be built, has, after so many abortive attempts, 
been at last accomplished, though upon a different and far 
more eligible site, than was then contemplated, — we are 
now to bid a final adieu to this ancient and venerable 
edifice. 

I need not say with what emotions those of us, who 
have worshipped together here for many years, will at the 
close of these services look around and behold these seatsi 
filled by their accustomed occupants for the last time. I 
can easily conceive, but will not attempt to describe, the 
feelings of the more advanced in years, who from their 
early days have worshipped here with parents, brothers, 
sisters and loved companions, who one after another have 
been called to join in other courts, we trust, in the purer 
and sublimer worship of perfected spirits in God's heaven- 
ly presence. How refreshingly will the thought come to 
them that, 

" The good on earth and those above 

But one communion make; 
Joined to their Lord in bonds of love, 

All of his grace partake. 

One family, they dwell in him; — 

One church above, beneath, — 
Tho' now divided by the stream, 

The narrow stream of death." 

It would be strange indeed if any of us could witness 
with indifference the removal from its place of this primi- 
tive temple of christian worship, whose spire has so long 
directed the spectator's eyes, and it may be his thoughts, 
to heaven ; — whose clock has so long measured and num- 
bered aloud the hours of the continually lessening period 
of duration, assigned to the longest human life, — and 
whose doors have been opened through so many peaceful 
sabbaths to successive generations of worshippers. The 
great ethical poet of England has told us, that he could 
not see without pain an old post removed from its place, to 



25 

the sight of which he had been long accustomed, as he 
went abroad. We shall all, I am sure, long and sensibly 
miss the old house and the brave bird upon his lofty perch, 
in all weathers faithfully indicating the direction of the 
wind. 

But this regard for the ancient and long cherished, 
though a natural and amiable feeling, may be indulged to 
excess, and become an effectual hindrance to all progress 
and improvement. It is, in its excess, the parent of that 
selfish conservatism, that would keep society stationary, 
and grudge a new generation any greater advantages and 
better accommodations than we have inherited from those 
who have preceeded us. Had our predecessors been gov- 
erned by this feeling, we should have been worshipping, 
with half our present number, in the old tunnel-shaped, 
diamond-windowed, diminutive edifice, such as was the 
house originally built upon this spot, if indeed it had not 
long since become much more of a ruin than this enlarged 
and often repaired house now is. It is the same feeling 
with many, as that which attaches us to our mortal bodies. 
Though they become by reason of age very inconvenient 
dwellings for our immortal spirits, we are for the most part 
very loath to part with them. Yet if we have grown wise 
with our advancing age and have in full view, as revealed 
to our faith, a more perfect and glorious body awaiting us, 
with which we are to be clothed, when we leave our 
decaying, or worn-out body, we shall certainly make the 
transition without regret, if not with joy. So it is ever 
with the faithful and mature christian, when, in the words 
of the poet: 

" The soul's dark cottage, battered and decay'd, 
Lets in new light thro' chinks, that time has made." 

And I am sure time has made chinks enough in our an- 
cient house to make us sufficiently willing to quit it for 
the new and beautiful temple, which yonder stands ready 
for our occupancy. And, in truth, it does seem not a little 
like a translation — such as was vouchsafed, we are told, 
to the ancient patriarch and prophet, Enoch and Elijah — 
4 



26 

our exchanging this comfortless, tottering, time- stained, 
and unsightly edifice for one, so attractive and commodi- 
ous, and we trust enduring, as that, which we are about to 
enter. 

And let us, for a moment, regard the change, as a trans- 
lation. We, as christians, all hope, when our earthly- 
houses of breathing clay shall be dissolved, that there 
awaits us a house not made with hands ^ eternal in the 
heavens. Let us in thought anticipate this change, which 
awaits every one, soon or late, and imagine, as I have 
said, our transition from the old church to our new one, a 
translation to our Father's house in heaven. We certainly 
would not take with us thither our resentments, our enmi- 
ties, our unfriendly feelings towards any, our scorn, our 
pride or envy of wealth or social position, any unholy pas- 
sions or sinful habits. So let none of us carry with ns 
any of these deadly antagonists to the soul's purity and 
love, to defile or desecrate the unsoiled and yet unpolluted 
precincts of the temple, which we are henceforth to regard 
as our Father'' s house, and though not heaven, yet the gale 
through which we hope to be conducted thither. And, as we 
each of us doubtless hope, should we arrive there, to meet 
all those, whom we have loved and cherished with a kind- 
ly interest in our sojourn together on earth ; — as I am sure 
it has been and will be while I live, my earnest prayer 
that all, who have been worshippers with me in this house, 
during my ministry, may be gathered in the celestial fold 
of the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls, — ''no wanderer 
lost," — not one missing soul, — so, I can truly say, it would 
give me inexpressible pain to miss in the new house one 
of the familiar faces, I have been accustomed to see here, 
giving serious heed to the words of eternal life, the truths 
of the everlasting gospel, which I can call God to witness, 
I have ever spoken in love, — seeking not your applause, 
but that you might receive the end of your faith, even the 
salvation of your sojds. 

Having in this pulpit spent my best days and strength in 
your service, it will be the crowning wish and happiness 
of my life to see and know the Society, with which I have 



27 

been so many years connected, transferred unitedly and 
peacefully to its new and splendid temple, its permanence 
and prosperity secured upon an enduring basis, — and, for 
the few days, that remain to me, by still speaking the truth 
in love, to 

" Allure to brighter worlds and lead the way," 

whether soon or late, I have no choice, only that I survive 
not, if God please, my strength to labor and the humble 
measure of understanding he has given me. 

And now the hour has arrived for us to bid farewell to 
this venerable and so long venerated place of our solemni- 
ties — this ancient temple of worship, — this house of our 
God, forever. But in taking leave of it, we need leave 
only the wood, the boards and dingy walls behind us. — 
We may, and it is fit that we should, transfer with our 
persons to the new house all the hallowed remembrances 
and sacred associations, which have made this house holy 
and dear to us. The spirits of the departed, with whom 
we have taken sweet counsel, and walked together in 
company to this house of God, though unseen, will still 
be with us when we go to the other house. At least our 
God, his holy Son and Spirit, will be there, as here. For, 
as Moses said of old to Jehovah, so would I now say. Con- 
sider, O God, that this congregation is thy people. If thy 
presence go not with us, carry us not up hence. And if we 
go with a right spirit, we may each of us in faith hear God 
saying to us, as to his servant of old, My presence shall go 
with thee, and I will give thee rest. 



28 
ORDER OF SERVICES 

ON TAKING LEAVE OF THE OLD CHUKCH OF THE EAST SOGIETV, 
DECEMBER 28, 1845. 



FORENOON. 

1. Hymn — (25lh — from the Pastor's Collection. 
2. Prayer. 

3. Voluntary by the Choir. 
4. Reading of Scriptures. 

5. Hymn— (10th— from the P. C.) 

6. Sermon by Rev. Dr. Flint. 

7. Voluntary by the Choir. 

8. Prayer. 

9. Benediction. 

AFTERNOON. 

1. Hymn — (39th — from the Pastor's Collection.) 
2. Prayer. 
3. Voluntary by the Choir, 

4. Reading of Scriptures. 

5. Hymn— (308th— from the P. C.) 

6. Sermon — by Rev- Dr. Flint. 

V. Hymn— (401st— from the P. C.) 

8. Prayer. 

9. Benediction. 



I wisli to express my sense of obligation to Joseph G. Waters, Esq., and a lew 
other friends, who have furnished me with tlie principal liistorical facta respecting the 
East Church and Society, and their ancient house of worship, upon our taking leave 
of wixich the foregoing Discourses were delivered. J. F. 



A 

I 



DISCOURSE 



DELIVERED AT THE 



DEDICATION OF THE NEW CHURCH, 



BUILT FOR THE USE OF THE 



EAST CHURCH AND SOCIETY, 



IN SALEM; 



JANUARY 1, 1846. 



BY JAMES FLINT, D. D 

Pastor of the East Church. 



SALEM: 
1846. 



DISCOURSE. 



Revelation, xxi, n clause of the 5ih verse. 
BEHOLD I MAKE ALL THINGS NEW. 

I DO not inquire if this book be canonical or inspired in 
the supernatural sense of inspiration, or whether God, the 
infinite Father, gave command by an audible voice, or by 
an angelic spirit, to write the things recorded in it, or 
whether God in any manner was the author of the words, 
Behold I make all things new. Whether God said it or 
not, we believe that he has done and is ever doing what is 
here ascribed to him. By his providence, through his 
agency, and by whatever instruments he is pleased to 
employ, we believe that he brings to pass all events and 
changes, which give a new aspect to the phenomena, a 
new face to things in the physical, moral and spiritual de- 
partments of the stupendous and to us boundless universe, 
to which he has given existence, over which he presides, 
which he pervades by his spirit, sustains by his almighty 
energy, and in which he unceasingly worketh all in all after 
the counsels of his oiDn zcill, in infinite wisdom and infinite 
love. 

Through his agency, or by those established laws of na- 
ture, as we call them, — which is only a different name for 
his agency, — all organized bodies, whether vegetable or 
animal, — all material forms and structures wrought into 
shape by human hands, have a beginning, a progress, a 
maturity, a certain period of duration, when they begin to 
decline, to decay and finally cease to answer the ends and 
to be fit for the uses, for which they originally received 
form and shape and adaptation to the wants of the human 



32 

body or soul, either from the plastic hand of nature, or 
from that of human agency and art. As all things material, 
visible, and palpable to sense are thus undergoing perpetual 
change. — as there is perpetual decay, so there is perpetual 
renovation. God by his own invisible agency, or by hu- 
man instfumentality and such olher agents as he employs, 
is tlius perpetually making all things new in the outward, 
visible, or material world. By the law of decay and disso- 
lution, to which he has subjected all material forms and 
fabrics, the primitive and time- shattered house of wor- 
ship, — of which we took respectful and affectionate leave 
the last Sabbath, not without " some natural tears," — had 
become unfit for occupancy, having long since ceased to be 
a secure shelter from the dust and rains of summer, or the 
snows and blasts of winter. 

As the sentiment of a God and the necessity of worship 
are essential endowments of man's nature, when your old 
house was verging fast to a ruin, prompted by the wants 
of the soul, by its instinctive cravings for worship, social 
and public, as well as private, enlightened and guided by 
your christian faith, you were induced to provide for your- 
selves and coming generations a nevv"- and more commodi- 
ous house of worship, as your fathers had built for them- 
selves and succeeding generations the house, that could no 
longer meet the Avants and satisfy the improved tastes of 
the present generation of worshippers, and which its anti- 
quated form and time-shattered condition compelled you to 
abandon. 

Thus, through a divine influence, or the religious senti- 
ment, acting in your souls, God by your instrumentality 
has made all things nev) in respect to the place, the house 
and the altar of our worship. The site of the house having 
been selected and secured, — a site that seemed providen- 
tially reserved for the purpose, — when, with a devout sense 
of dependence upon the favoring providence of God, you 
assembled at the laying of the corner stone to invoke his 
blessing upon the work, the prayer offered upon the occa- 
sion for its successful completion, and that no disasterous 
event or unpropitious circumstance might occur in its pro- 



33 

gress to sadden the joy of those who should witness the 
accomplishment of the work, has been most graciously an- 
swered. 

By the same divine agency, that makes all things new, 
yon were led to choose, not only a new site, but a new 
style of architecture ; for by discarding the modern and 
reviving the ancient, the ancient becomes new to a new 
generation. The ancient order of church architecture, de- 
nominated Gothic, from the name of the people by whom 
churches of this order were first built, has been adopted 
and faithfully adhered to in rearing the commodious and 
beautiful temple, which we have now the happiness to see 
completed. The order is new to us in this section of our 
country, though its origin dates far back into the middle 
ages, and its prototype to the creation of the forests. 
"The groves were God's first temples;" and from them 
the ideal of this order of church architecture was undoubt- 
edly first conceived. The vaulted ceiling, spread darkly 
over the heads of the assembly was fashioned in striking 
resemblance to the umbrageous canopy, formed by the 
branches and thick foliage of the trees, bending from their 
lofty trunks, which, like the pillars that support the 
pointed arches of the temple, lift the eyes and the thoughts 
of the worshippers upward towards the Heaven of the 
blessed, the supposed visible presence and resplendent 
abode of the Being adored, and the final home of the soul, 
that finds no home for its affections here on earth. " The 
forests," says an eloquent French writer, "were thus 
introduced into the temples of our ancestors, and those 
celebrated woods of oaks," [in which the Druids performed 
the mysterious rites of their religion] " thus continued to 
maintain their sacred character." 

It has been said, as you know, that this order of church 
architecture does not comport with the simplicity of the 
Unitarian faith. But if it reminds us of the simple gran- 
deur, beauty and loveliness of nature, — if it lifts our 
thoughts upward toward heaven, as through the lofty 
arcades of the forest, — if its ornamental sculpture and 
carvings figure to us the foliage and branches of trees, the 
5 



34 

flowers or the vines, which from the natural decorations of 
the embowering grove or sylvan temple, under whose co- 
vert man first adored his Maker, it would seem the fittest 
of all forms of church architecture that could be chosen, as 
an expressive symbol of the simple grandeur, beauty and 
attractive loveliness of the faith of the Unitarian. As 
amidst the sublime magnificence and beautiful variety of 
nature, there is a wonderful unity and simplicity, — so, in 
the teachings of Jesus, as understood by the Unitarian, 
there is a simple majesty, a comprehensive variety, em- 
bracing all human relations and duties, a clear intelligible- 
ness, a wonderful charm and deep spiritual significance, a 
directness and singleness of purpose and end, which are 
embodied without human admixtures in no other views, 
and retained, without addition, diminution, or distortion, in 
no other interpretations, as we think, of the gospel of Jesus, 
than the Unitarian. And as this faith is only a revival of 
the primitive christian faith, and the gothic a revival of an 
ancient and most appropriate order of chin-ch architecture, 
your Committee, as they have done in their discharge of 
the entire trust confided to them, did well in adopting at 
once the architectural order and form of the house, the plan 
of which was submitted to them by the ingenious architect 
they employed; and our hearty thanks are due to him 
for the original archetype, to the master builders and their 
skilful workmen for converting the pictured ideal of the 
artist into the actual, ornate and impressive temple, in which 
we are now for the first time assembled. 

Should any invidiously ask, why you have reared so 
costly an edifice, so richly, though chastely, embellished by 
art, and insinuate that a plainer and cheaper structure 
might have answered every purpose of shelter and conve- 
nience, as well, and half the money expended been saved 
and given to the poor ? Your answer is ready, that you 
have built this house to stand, as a permanent expression 
of your reverence for God, your zeal for his honor and 
respect for his worship ; as the box of costly perfume was 
poured by the pious Mary upon the head of Jesus in token 
of her grateful respect and affection for the friend, she 



35 

esteemed worthy of the most precious and costly gift she 
had to bestow. Some of yon, I know, have long experi- 
enced something like the self-reproach of David, who felt, 
when he was living in a splendid palace of cedars, that the 
house, in which was the visible symbol of the divine pres- 
ence, ought not to be inferior in splendor and beauty to his 
royal palace. And it is indeed, most meet, and seems only 
discharging a just and ordinary debt of gratitude, that, as 
the members of a religious society prosper and increase in 
wealth, and out of this wealth build for themselves spaci- 
ous and beautiful dwellings, when a house is required to 
be built by them for the God they worship, and who alone 
"ynaketli rich arid addeth no sorrow therewith, it should be a 
house, that in costliness and beauty may compare, not un- 
worthily, with their expensive and tasteful private man- 
sions. A Society, whose means are small, would be doing 
themselves a manifest wrong to build a costly house ; nor 
could it be an acceptable offering to God, that impossed an 
oppressive burden upon his worshippers. From the sterile 
ridge, the arid plain, or the desert waste, neither the orna- 
ment of trees, the incense of flowers, nor the matin or ves- 
per hymn of birds is expected. But, covering and adorn- 
ing the fertile valley both God and men expect there should 
be seen the pomp and garniture of groves, vocal with the 
morning and evening melody of singing birds, — blossoms 
exhaling their fragrance to heaven, — trees waving with 
golden fruit, — cultivated fields yielding their increase, and 
the reapers, laden with sheaves, " shouting their harvest 
home," — the whole forming an oifering and a worship com- 
mensurate with the fertility, bestowed upon that valley by 
its Maker. Thus the God of nature has taught us, that in 
providing the fit means of celebrating his worship and ren- 
dering unto him the glory due unto his name, it is required 
of all only according to what they have. Where little is 
given, little is required ; where much is given, much is re- 
quired. 

Having, according to your pious intent and ability, in 
the words of the Hebrew king, btiilded an honse to the name 
of the Lord your God^ to dedicate it to hirn, you are now 



36 

assembled for the performance of this solemn, yet joyful 
and deeply interesting service. We gladly and cordially 
welcome to a participation in this service the presence of so 
many of our christian friends, whose kind wishes, I doubt 
not, have been with you from the commencement to the 
happy consummation of your laudable enterprise. And I 
am sure their hearts also have been lifted up with your's 
in the fervent and solemn prayer of consecration, that has 
been offered to the one only living and eternal God, suppli- 
cating his gracious acceptance of the freewill offering of 
this temple to his service, — beseeching him to hallow it by 
his Spirit, — to dwell in it and to bless it by making his 
presence ever felt here, enlightening, sanctifying and com- 
forting the souls of all, that shall come here, while this 
house shall stand, to worship and seek for wisdom to un- 
derstand and strength to do the will of their Father in 
heaven, that they may inherit, with all his obedient chil- 
dren, the promise he has j)romised us by his Son, even eter- 
9inl life. 

As your organ, then, and as God's ministering servant 
and yours, I now pronounce holy and henceforth sacred to 
God and his worship, — to the preaching of the everlasting 
gospel of the Son of God, and the celebration of the Chris- 
tian ordinances,— this commodious and beautiful temple, 
these walls, these seats, this pulpit, the organ and the 
place in which the high praises of God are to be sung, 
the altar of baptism, and the tables to be spread from 
time to time with the symbols of the body, that was 
pierced, and of the blood, that was shed for the remission 
of sins, — the precious seal of the glorious and blessed truth, 
that God in Christ is reconciling the world unto himself, 
not imputing to the penitent their trespasses, and remem- 
bering no more against them the sins they have forsaken. 

You have built this house and thus set it apart from all 
secular uses and interests to stand as the visible symbol 
and attestation of the religious sentiment existing in your 
souls. If you mean an}"- thing more than a decent cere- 
mony by this act of consecration, it is that this house is to 
be regarded, as a sign of your faith in God and in the eter- 



37 

nal truths taught by Jesus, — the paternal character and 
universal providence of God, — the sentiment of duty, the 
sentiment of immortality and future retribution, — inherent 
in the human spirit, as original and essential constituents 
of man's nature. 

That the sight of it may remind you of these truths, you 
have distinguished it in form and aspect from all other struc- 
tures. Though in the midst of human dwellings,' fronting 
the frequented highways and busy scenes of your earthly 
life, while it is thus placed in a conspicuous position, it yet 
stands by itself in still and solemn seclusion, speaking to 
you of the relation you sustain to the invisible spirit of the 
universe, whose sanctuary it is, and in Avhich he summons 
his frail children to assemble one day in seven to invoke 
his presence and blessing, and to be instructed in the things 
that pertain to the interior spiritual life, the purity, peace, 
and blessedness of the undying soul. 

A new era in the history of this ancient Society commen- 
ces with the opening of your new house of worship to-day, 
which is the commencement of a new year. Let it be 
made memorable, as the commencement of a new era in 
the religious life and spiritual regeneration, as well as in 
the outward prosperity of the Society. Let it be signalized 
by a new and warmer interest in Christian institutions, — 
by a more devout and constant attendance upon the pub- 
lic, religious services, — the otfering of social prayer and 
praise, — the inculcation of christian truths and morals, and 
the observance of christian rites, — which are henceforth to 
be celebrated here, from sabbath to sabbath, and, we trust, 
perpetuated by a succession of worshippers to the end of 

time. 

It will be in vain that all things have been made exter- 
nally new in your worship, if you fail of being inwardly 
renewed in the spirit of your minds. This, we should ever 
feel to be the ultimate and only worthy end for which this 
house has been erected,— for which all houses of Christicni 
worship are erected. And what I wish further to say 
upon this topic has been so much better said, than any 
thing I can say, by a gifted brother upon a similar occasion, 



38 

that I know you will thank me for repeating to you his 
significant words of truth and soberness. 

" A new temple," he says, " may be regarded as a sign 
of the regeneration of the Society, to which it belongs. * * 
If it has any significance or value beyond our ordinary 
dwellings, it is derived from the act of faith, which con- 
secrates it ; and by ever new freewill offerings of faith 
must it be kept holy. Henceforth this edifice is sacred to 
the interests and aspirations of the soul. It rejects all mea- 
ner uses. Every unchristian feeling or unworthy thought 
desecrates it. The outward beauty may remain, but no 
longer is it an expression of spiritual beauty in the invisible 
life of the worshipper. ^ =^ * The place is profaned by 
every thing which defiles the soul, that enters it. No sanc- 
tuary can be holier than the hearts of its worshippers. 

" Let every thought then of this temple be accompanied 
with deeper thoughts of the invisible adorning of the soul 
with piety and faith and love. Let it show forth the re- 
kindling of devout sentiments and all christian graces in 
the heart of this people. If we allow ourselves to be satis- 
fied by its outward ministration to our senses and tastes, it 
is no temple of God, that we have reared, but an unhal- 
lowed monument of our pride and vanity, upon which no 
blessing descends. ^ * * We would not exhaust our en- 
ergies in building and adorning the outward, while we 
leave the sanctuary within a mournful ruin. This new 
edifice speaks to us of a reviving sentiment of religion in 
the hearts of the people. Let us endeavor to fulfil the au- 
gury. Let it stand here evermore a holy and free offering 
of our souls to God and to the best interest and hope of 
humanity, undefiled by any meaner motive or aim. May 
it be a ministration of love and grace, of peace and charity 
of truth and holiness to the present and all coming genera- 
tions. Ever may it be hallowed anew by the thronging in 
of devout worshippers, yearning for the communications of 
infinite wisdom and love."=^ 

It has been for the renewal of souls after the image of 
God in knowledge and righteousness and true holiness, 

* Rev. Mr. Stetson's Sermon at the Dedication of a new House of worship in Medford. 



39 

that houses of worship have been and continue to be rear- 
ed, — that christian worship, the preaching of the gospel 
and the observance of christian rites have been and con- 
tinue to be maintained in every region of the civilized 
world, where the christian faith is recognized, as the relig- 
ion of the people. For this end the eternal truths contained 
in the christian gospel, were first preached by Christ and 
authenticated by miracle, and have been preached by his 
apostles and ministers hitherto with various degrees of 
efficacy in different eras, and according to the degrees of 
intelligence, sincerity and freedom from human admix- 
tures, with which they have been dispensed and received. 

It was in reference to the efficacy of these truths, or of 
Christianity, that the words of my text were especially ut- 
tered or written : — Behold I make all things neu\ In pro- 
portion as the members of a christian congregation are re- 
oieived in the spirit of their minds, according to the teach- 
ings and example of Christ, in so far and no farther is the 
end of their faith attained, — in so far and no farther is the 
purposes of the christian revelation accomplished in them. 

The God and Father of our race has been making and 
is now 7naking all things morally and spiritually new, 
wherever the christian religion has been received, and in 
as many souls as have experienced and manifested its 
legitimate influence and efficacy. The introduction and 
the change it was destined to produce in the world were 
announced in prophecy as a new creation, — the making of 
a new heaven and a new earth. This new heaven and 
new earth were beheld by the seer of the Apocalypse, as 
he writes in the beginning of the chapter, containing the 
text ; and the first heaven and the first earth were passed 
away. And I saw, continues the seer, the holy city, the 
neiD Jerusalem, coming dowfi from God ont of heaven, 
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I 
heard a loud voice ont of heaveii, saying, Behold the taher-' 
nacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them,, and 
they will be his people, and God himself ivill be with them 
and be their God; and he will wipe away all tears from, 
their eyes ; and death will be no more; and sorrow and 



40 

lamentailon a?irl pain will be no more ; for the former 
ihings are passed away. And He who sat upo7i the 
throne said, Behold, I make all things neio. 

All this, so beautiful and delightful in vision, would be 
verified to the letter in the experience of christians, if they 
felt and lived out their religion, as it exists in the teachings, 
and was exemplified in the divine and heavenly life of 
Jesus. Christianity has already eifected in the world much 
of what is here ascribed to it. The old heaven and much 
of the old earth and hell of heathenism, — its spiritual hier- 
archy, — I should say rather, its unholy and sensual rabble 
of divinities, from Jupiter downward through the celestial 
and terrestrial to the infernal, — where Christianity has been 
taught, understood and believed, — have all passed away 
from the minds and no longer exist in the faith of its disci- 
ples. A new heaven has been revealed to them, inhabited 
by the one only holy, all-good and perfect God, the infin- 
ite and loving Father of all human spirits, and a new earthy 
in which dioelleth rigltteousness, wherever the true disci- 
ples of Jesns dwell, — full of the riches of God's goodness, 
in which all there is of evil, as we deem evil, is permitted 
for ultimate good, and may be converted to good, — to the 
production oi the peaceable fruits of righteousness, by every 
one that is exercised therewith. Under the government of 
God, as made known by Christ, in the words of the chris- 
tian poet, 

" All evils natural are moral goods ; 

" All discipline indulgence on the whole." 

Till it was revealed that God is love, and that nothing 
but good on the whole can proceed from love, and that no 
malignant being has anything to do in the government of 
the world, but that it is ruled, as well as preserved, by its 
Maker, who is love, — mankind everywhere conceived the 
world to be under the government of two antagonist pow- 
ers, always contending for the mastery, one the author of 
good, and the other of evil. This Manichean theory, un- 
der diiferent forms, has been found to exist in all the 
religions of all nations, un visited by the light of the sacred 



41 

scriptures. Men could not conceive how the ills of life 
could proceed from the same being, that so bountifully dis- 
pensed good to his creatures. And this christian doctrine 
is yet but imperfectly comprehended by christians. They 
have everywhere had so much of Judaism and Heathenism 
incorporated in their creeds, that they have believed as 
devoutly in a devil, as in the good and blessed God. They 
have supposed a devil and a local hell, as necessary to 
enforce obedience under God's perfect government, as have 
been whipping-posts, tortures, dungeons, and gibbets with 
sheriffs, beadles, and hangmen, under the imperfect, unjust, 
coercive and often cruel governments of Christendom, as 
yet more than half pagan, as they are, in their principles, 
laws and administration. 

As the teachings of Christ respecting the character and 
government of God have been understood by individuals, 
and are beginning to be understood by christians more 
generally, God is beginning to be obeyed from love, as He 
who is love would ever be obeyed by his children. The 
fear of what God will do to them if they transgress, is now 
changed to the only fear, that can be rational and salutary 
and consistent with love, — the fear of the harm, which 
they will certainly do themselves, if they transgress God's 
laws, — the wrong they will do their own souls by sinning 
against God. The only hell, which any need to fear, is 
the hell which the wicked make for themselves in their 
own guilty souls, and which they cannot escape in this or 
any other world, till they are renewed in the spirit of their 
mind by repentance and reconciliation with God and 
holiness. 

It is thus, by what God has revealed of himself and his 
government, — of man's duties and destination, in the gospel 
or Christianity, that He ha^'been and continues making all 
things morally, or spiritually new, as the teachings of 
Christ, all perfectly exemplified in the heavenly beauty 
and loveliness of his character, are received, understood, 
and lived out in the faith and obedience of christians. The 
old heaven and earth of heathenism have thus been, slow- 
ly indeed, but surely, passing away, and the new heaven 
6 



42 

and earth, the new moral creation and spiritual renovation 
of our race, have been and are taking their place in the 
faith and lives of christians, as their minds and hearts 
have been turned and are turning from the darkness of 
Paganism and Jewish error, to the pure light and perfect 
love of the gospel, — or in Jewish phraseology, from the 
poioer of Satan unto God. 

It is much, nay, a glorious change, that Christianity has 
already effected, in having banished, to the extent it has, 
idolatry, belief in magic, in the fearful and malignant 
agency of demons and the supposed dominion of Satan, 
the imaginary prince of demons, — maintaining, as not a 
few still believe, an equality, if not a preponderance, of 
sway over human hearts and human affairs with the all- 
wise and good Creator and Sovereign of the universe. — 
And with these terrific phantoms of the mind have been 
banished more or less of the low views, the depraved usa- 
ges, the selfish and debasing moralities of the semi-barba- 
rous ages of the heathen and Jewish civilizations. Idolatry, 
magic, Satanic, or demoniac power, witchcraft, and all 
the traditionary superstitions, that lingered long in Chris- 
tendom after the empire of heathenism, in which this 
brood of night and terror had their birth, had been shaken 
to its centre by the christian revelation, that divine agent, 
the truth of God, by which he makes all things new, — all 
these in their gross and palpable forms have well nigh 
faded away into shadowy remembrances. Says a popular 
writer, " The day of magic is gone by. Witchcraft has 
been put a stop to by act of Parliament." I may add, 
that by Christianity, this light from heaven, which has 
been so long struggling with the darkness and dispersing 
by degrees the shadows, that for ages had brocded over 
the spiritual, the interior world of the soul, — over its abused 
faith in the invisible and spiritual, — the worship of false 
gods, and most of the idolatrous and superstitious rites of 
the old world and in the Islands of the South Seas, have 
been put an end to. 

But before the new heaven and new earth, contemplated 
by the seer, can be said to have superseded the old, and all 



43 

things thai are to be made new, as said by Him that sat 
upon tlie throne, shall be changed according to the pro- 
phetic vision in the Apocalypse, Christianity, the instrument 
by which this change is to be effected, has itself to be 
renovated, or, I should rather say, to be restored to its 
primitive simplicity and purity. Till a purer Christianity 
prevails in the churches generally throughout Christendom, 
the social evils and abuses, which it was designed and is 
fitted and, as I doubt not, is yet destined, to put an end to, 
will continue, as they have continued for ages, inflicting 
incomparably greater debasement and misery upon society, 
than all the idolatries and superstitions, which it has to so 
great an extent banished from the world. 

A half Judaized and heathenized Christianity, it is well 
known, was early substituted in the place of Christ's heaven- 
descended, pure, peaceable, loving and beneficent Christianity, 
full of»mercy and good fruits, with its life-giving, immortal 
hope, breathing into the souls of its disciples the divine chari- 
ty and heavenly spirit of Jesus. The perverted, secularized 
religion, that took theplace of Christ's divine religion, early 
became a state religion, — was taught and sustained, and 
continues to be taught and sustained in the ecclesiastical 
establishments of the old world, and is incorporated in the 
creeds of most of the religious sects in America. This 
adulterated Christianity has countenanced and perpetuated 
hitherto the tyrannies and oppressions, the abuses and 
wrongs, which man's inhumanity to his brother man has 
inflicted and continues to inflict under every government 
in Christendom. It has been made to sanction wars, sla- 
very, and the worship of Mammon, — the mere selfish use 
of riches, instead of holding them, according to the christian 
idea of property, in trust, — which forbids the possessors 
hoarding their riches, or spending them in luxury, or as 
purveyors to their indolence, their self indulgence, their 
pride and vain-glorj^, but enjoins them, as God's stewards 
and almoners, to dispense them freely, disinterestedly, 
hoping for nothing again, whenever such claimants, as 
the poor and sutfering, as the cause of humanity, or the 
public good evidently requires and might demand by a 
divine law a share of such riches. 



44 

These social evils and abuses, these tyrannies, oppres- 
sions and wrongs, these merely selfish and unchristian 
ends, for which wealth is so eagerly sought and to which 
it is so generally applied, will gradually disappear and 
cease from among christians, as they awake to a just sense 
of the inconsistency of their selfish moralities, of the sel- 
fish legislation, laws and governments, called christian, 
and the principles upon which they are administered, with 
the principles and laws of Christianity, as taught by Christ. 
When Christianity shall be purged of its Jewish and 
heathen corruptions, which are the source of all the secta- 
rian and anti-christian jealousies and aversions, with which 
christians of different names and creeds regard each other, 
Catholic and Protestant, Episcopalian and Dissenter, Or- 
thodox and Heterodox, in all their varieties, — all these 
jealousies and aversions, with the persecutions and denun- 
ciations, the arrogant assumptions, the exclusive narrow- 
ness and bigotry, to which creeds of man's making and 
imposition have ministered and still minister, will cease, 
and christians will love each other and live together as 
brethren, as children of one Father, as they have been 
taught to live by the one great Teacher sent from God. 

The signs of the times indicate that He, who maketh all 
things new, is preparing the way for a new era in the 
practical application of Christianity. It is not for the 
propagation or support of a creed, for the building up of a 
sect, or for merely maintaining the outward forms of public 
worship decently and in order, — or for catering to the 
tastes or imagination, or entertainment of a congregation 
of well-dressed, well-bred hearers, that the institutions of 
Christianity are to be sustained. It will be to inspire in 
them a deeper and more constant feeling of their relation 
and responsibleness to God, — a more abiding and vivid 
perception of the jpowers of the world to come. It will be 
to bring the worshippers of God to feel and cherish in their 
hearts the reverence and love to Him which Christ taught 
and exemplified, — to feel and cherish the sentiments, the 
love and good will towards one another and towards all 
their kind, which Christ inculcated and hath shown them 



45 

how to express by his self-devotion and tlie sacrifice of his 
life to enlighten and redeem mankind from their ignorance, 
their errors, their sins, and the miseries resulting from them. 

These soul-renewing, — these blessed and blessing influ- 
ences and effects of a purer and better-understood Christi- 
anity, are beginning to be manifested by christians, as they 
have never been seen to exist before, since the days of the 
Apostles. They appear in the religious efforts of the 
times, — in the wider and deeper sympathy felt and ex- 
pressed for the poor and the fallen, for the oppressed and 
the enslaved, — in the recognition of the sacred bond of 
human brotherhood, — in the great movements for universal 
peace and for the abolition of war, — in the associations for 
moral reform, "not overlooking the lowest and not sparing 
the highest." 

With these manifestations of a new spirit and life in 
christians, creeds and sectarianism will no longer keep 
christians at variance with one another. A man's christian 
character will be no longer determined by his creed or 
profession. What men believe or disbelieve will no longer 
be the criterion by which they will be judged, but by their 
fruits, by what they do and are ; — yes, by their resem- 
blance to Christ, — by their virtues, the innocence, the piety, 
the usefulness and beneficence of their lives shall they be 
judged ; and they will be loved, not only by God, as all 
good men ever are and will be, but by all christian men, 
even though they may doubt, yes, even deny, what their 
brethren hold to be most true and sacred. No man will be 
condemned, or his name cast out as unworthy, for opinions, 
which he has formed and holds as the result of honest 
inquiry and conscientious conviction of their truth. I 
think that the signs of the times indicate, that christians 
will ere long with one consent subscribe to the import of 
the well known couplet of the catholic poet : — 

" For modes of faith let sects and bigots fight ; 
" His can't be wrong whose life is in the right." 

Then may we hope that christians will be what Christ 
came to make and will, I trust in God, yet make human 



46 

beings, associated in small or large communities, — such as 
God's human family was designed to be, a kind and peace- 
ful, and mutually helpful and loving brotherhood. Such 
is Christ's ideal of what the christian character and of 
what every community of christians ought to be. 

And when Christianity is understood and taught, as its 
ideal existed in the mind and was exhibited in the charac- 
ter and life of Christ, there will be no longer that antagon- 
ism between it and the ascertained facts of science and the 
principles of a true philosophy, — an antagonism that has 
everywhere existed, since the free and generous and loving 
spirit of the gospel was shut up and stifled to death in the 
narrow, literal definitions, the cold abstractions, and petri- 
fied dogmas of church creeds. If Christianity be true, then 
there can be no discrepancy between it and true science 
and a true philosophy. All truth being consistent, they 
will perfectly agree and harmonize. When a man becomes 
enlightened by science, by a true and just philosophy, the 
result of the highest exercise and most satisfactory conclu- 
sions of human reason, he will no longer have to renounce 
his faith in Christianity, as innumerable intelligent and vir- 
tuous men have done, who have known only a corrupted 
Christianity. 

In bringing to pass this spiritual renovation — this mak- 
ing all things new in the faith and life of christians, — 
this predicted millenium of Christianity, seen in vision by 
the seer of the apocalypse, some over-zealous reformers, of 
doubtful sanity, have told us that public worship, churches 
and the christian ministry are to be superseded by, — they 
none of them tell us definitely what. But sure I am, that 
while a drop of the Puritan blood of the Pilgrims flows in 
the veins of their New-England descendants, public wor- 
ship, churches and the christian ministry will be continued 
and sustained, with a more enlightened zeal, we trust, and 
with increasing purity and spirituality, by every successive 
generation, not only in New-England, but throughout the 
christian world. For if any one truth can be more certain 
than another, from the whole teaching of the past, and the 
whole testimony of human nature and human experience 



47 

since the world began, it is that man must and will have a 
religion and a worship of some kind ; and no other can 
supersede the Christian where that has been Icnown in its 
purity. They, who have made their transit over our 
sphere for a hundred generations before us, have been 
found, and they, who shall follow for a hundred genera- 
tions to come, will be found with their God, their temples, 
their worship and their immortal hopes. 

To our fathers' God, then, who has been and will be our 
God and our guide even unto death, and of all that shall 
come after us, — to his worship, — to the teachings of his 
anointed Son and representative, — to his holy truth and 
Spirit, the sanctifier and comforter of souls,— we think we 
are doing an acceptable act in his sight, who dedicate this 
temple in the faith, hope and charity of christian disciples, 
and children of the ever-living and all-loving Father. And 
may the ministrations at this altar be ever among the innu- 
merable efficient agencies by which souls are renewed 
after the divine image, and by which He, that sitteth upon 
the throne of the universe, is making all things new. 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 



43 



014 075 102 9 



'J 



ORDER OF SERVICES 

AT THE DEDICATION OF THE NEW HOUSE OF WORSHIP, EUIET FOR THS 
USE OF THE EAST SOCIETY, JANUARY 1, 184(:. 



I. ANTHEM. — How beautiful upon the mountains, &c. 

2. PRAYER, BY REV. J. PIERPONT. 

3. SELECTIONS FROM THE SCRIPTURES, BY REV. J. W. THOMPSON. 

4. HY.MN, BY THE PASTOR. 



In costly fane, the pride of art, 

Or bowed in lowliest cell, 
Lord, in the pure and grateful heart 

Thou dost delight to dwell. 

Thy servants find thee everywhere, 

Alone, by nislit or day; 
The world is all a house of prayer 

To souls that love to pray. 

Yet, with intenser, brighter flame, 

Devotion's Are will blaze. 
When many meet in Jesus' name 

To join in prayer and praise, 

That here our mingled vows may rise, 
This house our hands have rear'd 

To thee, the only God, most wise, 
In heaven and earth revered. 

Be here our soul's secure retreat, 
Our ark on life's chafed sea; 



Unheard the storm without shall beat, 
While we commune with thee. 

Here, with a Father's gracious eye, 

Behold the suppliant throng, 
Oft as they breathe th' imploring sigh, 
Or wake the choral song. 

Here, let the mourner's tear be dried, 
The fearful cease to fear, — 

The anxious in thy csre confide, — 
The lonely feel thee near. 

Let not in vain the wicked hear, 
When urped to turn and live; 

And when for sin they mourn sincere, 
Show mercy and forgive. 

Be all, that here shall meet to pray, 
Till worship liere shall cease. 

Prepared, without one cast-away, 
To meet their Judge in peace. 



5. PRAYER OF DEDICATION, BY REV. J. BRAZER, D. D. 
6. ORIGINAL HYMN, BY THE PASTOR. 

" Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness." — Psalm xxix. 2. 



The beauty, Lord, of holiness 

No temple built by hands can show; 

No outward symbol can express 

What in the soul must live and glow. 

Vet here, on this now hnllow'd spot 
We've built for thee this goodly shrine; 

Whate'er the cost, we count it not,— 
We give but what before was thine. 

'Tis not that here wc deem thou'lt be 
More present or propitious. Lord, 

To hear the prayer we make to thee, 
To guide or cheer us by thy word. 

The boundless heavens can not contain 
The God, whose hands those heavens uphold 



O how much less Earth's proudest fane, 
With amplest vaults of fretted gold f 

Thy influence reaches, unconfin'd. 
All hearts, all worlds; — to time nor place 

Dost tliou restrict the pious mind, 
Or bound the visits of thy grace. 

Yet on thy Sabbaths, gather'd here, 
We trust our spirits may be brought 

To feel thee more than ever near. 
Inspiring pure and reverent thought. 

Yes, we will hope to offer thee 

The worship here, which thou wilt bless, 
Till in each soul, enshrin'd thou see, 

The beauty, Lord, of holiness. 



7. SERMON, BY THE PASTOR. 
8. ORIGINAL HYMN, BY AN UNKNOWN FRIEND. 



O thou, who dwell'st in light and love. 
In whose bright presence angels bow, 

Look down in favor from above. 
On us, who wait before thee now. 

We ask no " rushing wind " of power. 
No " tongues of flame," to fill this place; 

But grant us in this sacred hour. 
The gentler spirit of thy grace. 

This house we dedicate to Thee, 
Our hope, our trust; — Lord, be it thine; 



And may our worship ever be 
Fit tribute at thy holy shrine. 

Here may thy servant speak thy love, 
That love, thro' Christ to man reveal'd, 

Till all our souls its power shall prove, 
And every sorrowing heart be heal'd. 

And when this temple shall decay, — 
Our dust at rest beneath the sod, — 

Still may our spirits live, to pay 
A nobler worship, with their God. 



9. PRAYER, BY REV. C. T. THAYER. 
10. BENEDICTION. 



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